The Motor Boys on the Pacific eBook

“Then you want to go?” asked Jerry.
“I’ll do just what ever you do. I’ll
tell him we’ll go.”

“No! Don’t!” cried Nellie in
a tense whisper. “Jerry—­ boys—­
don’t have anything to do with this man.
He may be all right, but there’s something mysterious
about him. Why should he want to hire you when,
for the same money, or less, he could get a company
of fishermen, who know these waters well, to make
the search? Take a girl’s reason, for once,
and don’t have anything to do with him!”

She had risen to her feet, her eyes were flashing
and her cheeks flushed with the excitement of the
moment. The boys looked at her in admiration.

“I admit there is something queer in his offering
to increase the prize money,” spoke Jerry, after
a pause. “He must be very desperate.”

“And why this sudden rush?” inquired Ned.
“This afternoon he was in no such hurry.
Something must have occurred in the meanwhile—­
I wonder if it was the man on the cliff—­”

“Now don’t let’s go to guessing
at too much,” cautioned Jerry. “The
question to be settled now is: Do you want to
go on a search for the derelict brig? Yes or
no? That’s what we’ve got to settle
now.”

There was silence for a moment, broken only by the
tick of the clock in the cabin. Involuntarily
Nellie glanced at it. The hands pointed to the
hour of nine, and she felt that she and her sisters
should be home. Jerry looked at his two companions.

“I guess we’d better not go,” said
Bob slowly.

“I hate to give it up, but maybe it will be
for the best,” added Ned. “I’m
suspicious of him. Tell him we’ll not go,
Jerry.”

“Very well.”

Jerry stepped to the cabin door and slid it back.
At the sound Blowitz came eagerly forward.

“Well?” he queried. “Are you
going? Can you start at once’?”

“We have decided not to go,” replied Jerry,
slowly. “I—­ that is my chums
and I—­ do not feel just right about it.
It is not our boat, and—­”

He hesitated, for he did not want to give the main
reasons that had influenced him and his chums.
But Blowitz did not give him a chance to continue.

“Not go!” the man fairly cried. “Why
I’m surprised at you! You led me to believe,
all along, that you would go. Here I’ve
gone and wasted a lot of time on you, gone to a lot
of trouble, made all my arrangements, expecting you
would go, and—­”

“We never gave you any reason to think we would
go,” declared Jerry very positively. “You
are wrong, there, Mr. Blowitz. We only said we
would consider it. We have done so, and have concluded
not to go. I am sorry—­”

“Sorry? You’ll be sorrier than this
before I’m through with you!” threatened
the man. “You’ll wish you had gone
before very long, let me tell you. You’ve
spoiled all my plans. I depended—­ Oh!
I’ll get even with you for this!” and
the man, in a fury threw his cigar down on the rocks,
whence it bounded up amid a shower of sparks.
“You’ll regret this!” he cried in
angry tones, as he turned away and started off up
the cliff, muttering to himself.